Other Names for Home

It is sometimes said that home is the place where when you get there they can’t turn you away. T.S. Eliot writes “Home is where one starts from.” Home to others is simply the neighborhood in which you grew up, or the place where you first felt you belonged. James Bridle once joked that the 29 neighborhoods of his childhood home, Geocities, had been demolished — razed to the ground. To each of us home can mean something entirely different.

In this issue, each contributor in some way takes us to a place that could be called home. There are actual homes described in detail. There are characters who aren’t quite at home in their bodies and others for whom the body is home.

Legacy Russell’s The Imitation quite literally drops us into the home of a lover’s wealthy mother, a world in which bathroom towels are “tucked into a mangled origami of cranes perched upon white wicker” and contempt flows like so much wine.

In Richard Nixon, by Mitchell Dahlhoff, we go on a joyride with a mysterious character named Homeless Bob, who may or may not have served in Vietnam.

Camonghne Felix tells of things the block taught her, things that can only be described as real. Emily O’Neill’s poetry affirms that memory is home and there is just so much to notice.

The “Under The Influence” series continues with Sam Sellers transporting us to his first encounters with hip hop.

In Kameelah Janaan Rasheed’s interview with the brave and heart-burstingly honest writer Warsan Shire, Warsan speaks of a privileged homesickness after visiting her birthplace, South Africa.

All of these pieces are punctuated by the stunning photography of international photographer Sedrick Miles.

As in every issue, accompanying select pieces are lesson plans, written by Caits Meissner, that will allow teachers and educators to facilitate lessons using the writing.